Anne TootillBeautiful Naples
April 29th 2008 23:02
Naples has been in the news lately.
If you're like me you won't know that Mozzarella cheese is made from buffalo milk. Today more than 100 buffalo farms around Naples were quarantined for potential dioxin contamination.
Also in Naples, there is a rubbish crisis. The famous restaurant Caruso had to close its doors because no one is coming to Naples anymore. This famous restaurant with breathtaking view of the Gulf of Naples and Mount Vesuvius is closing, another victim of the rubbish crisis. "The city's image has been completely degraded by pictures of piles of rubbish on television."
Since Naples waste dumps reached capacity in December, people have had with no choice but to throw their rubbish onto the streets.
Serious concerns over Italian mozzarella first emerged in mid-March when samples of the cheese, made from buffalo milk, were found to have raised levels of dioxin, which increases the likelihood of cancer.
A total of 83 buffalo farms in the southern region were quarantined then. Of those, 20 were found to have higher than approved dioxin levels.
A crisis was averted then after Italy recalled the contaminated mozzarella and the European Commission declared itself satisfied and France lifted restrictions it had already put in place.
Nevertheless, Singapore subsequently joined Japan and South Korea in banning Italian mozzarella sales as a precautionary measure.
Today's latest data showed that of 271 samples of buffalo milk taken from 173 makers of mozzarella cheese in the southern Naples, Caserta and Avellino provinces, 14.4 per cent did not conform to the advised European Union limits for dioxin.
Naples and the surrounding Campania region is still struggling to recover from the crisis provoked by thousands of tonnes of uncollected rubbish.
However, Laetitia Luiga, a chemical engineer working for one cheesemaker in the region, said the possibility the higher dioxin levels were produced by people burning their household rubbish was remote.
Most of the buffaloes they used were raised in paddocks and 98 per cent of them were outside the crisis zone created by the build-up of rubbish, she said.
An EU source said today the European Commission is poised to sue Italy before an EU court for failing to resolve its rubbish collection crisis in the Naples region.
The Commission will decide in a meeting next Wednesday whether to ask the European Court of Justice to order Italian authorities to take action or face fines, the source said.
I just love Mozzarella on my spag, can't live without it.
If you're like me you won't know that Mozzarella cheese is made from buffalo milk. Today more than 100 buffalo farms around Naples were quarantined for potential dioxin contamination.
Also in Naples, there is a rubbish crisis. The famous restaurant Caruso had to close its doors because no one is coming to Naples anymore. This famous restaurant with breathtaking view of the Gulf of Naples and Mount Vesuvius is closing, another victim of the rubbish crisis. "The city's image has been completely degraded by pictures of piles of rubbish on television."
Since Naples waste dumps reached capacity in December, people have had with no choice but to throw their rubbish onto the streets.
Serious concerns over Italian mozzarella first emerged in mid-March when samples of the cheese, made from buffalo milk, were found to have raised levels of dioxin, which increases the likelihood of cancer.
A total of 83 buffalo farms in the southern region were quarantined then. Of those, 20 were found to have higher than approved dioxin levels.
A crisis was averted then after Italy recalled the contaminated mozzarella and the European Commission declared itself satisfied and France lifted restrictions it had already put in place.
Nevertheless, Singapore subsequently joined Japan and South Korea in banning Italian mozzarella sales as a precautionary measure.
Today's latest data showed that of 271 samples of buffalo milk taken from 173 makers of mozzarella cheese in the southern Naples, Caserta and Avellino provinces, 14.4 per cent did not conform to the advised European Union limits for dioxin.
Naples and the surrounding Campania region is still struggling to recover from the crisis provoked by thousands of tonnes of uncollected rubbish.
However, Laetitia Luiga, a chemical engineer working for one cheesemaker in the region, said the possibility the higher dioxin levels were produced by people burning their household rubbish was remote.
Most of the buffaloes they used were raised in paddocks and 98 per cent of them were outside the crisis zone created by the build-up of rubbish, she said.
An EU source said today the European Commission is poised to sue Italy before an EU court for failing to resolve its rubbish collection crisis in the Naples region.
The Commission will decide in a meeting next Wednesday whether to ask the European Court of Justice to order Italian authorities to take action or face fines, the source said.
I just love Mozzarella on my spag, can't live without it.
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